GTAMADDOG

I remember back when I was really young, I was at home and there was a massive storm outside. My sister told me that the noise of the wind howling was actually a witch casting spells and stirring a cauldron in the field behind our house and that's why it sounded so loud, however the witch would only do this at night. I believed that for a while until I decided to look out of the bathroom window at night and couldn't see a thing in a field. Oh, to be young and naive again :p

My new favourite music genre is Hardcore. Time to take a break from Metal. Watched a man climb a mountain, watched that man's end of time. No conversation with the giver, his father lives only in his mind.

Mega-sad-face. This means I have to endure the ridiculously busy Summer months at work before I get to play the game :(

Can't believe I didn't know about most of these until I read this thread. I'm most looking forward to Assetto Corsa and Formula Truck. I've got an old truck racing game somewhere which I used to enjoy playing despite barely being able to keep up with the AI as I was using a keyboard. I think it may have also had something to do with me not wanting to use the brakes either :p Forza 5 would interest me if my Xbox worked. DiRT 4 will need to be a lot more heavily focused on proper rallying. WRC 4 would need to be realistic with proper length stages, etc. I can't see DiRT 4 or WRC 4 living up to my expectations.

w00t, I finally managed to clean the car after I had to leave it last weekend as there was too much snow an ice about, I didn't fancy turning the road in to an even bigger ice rink. I've been going crazy over the last week seeing how dirty the car was, I seriously think I've got a really bad obsession with cleaning the car :(

It scares me to death to know that one day I won't be haunted by your ghost.. stay with me..

Saw this on Facebook the other day and lolled at work. Got weird looks.

Got the car out of the estate successfully. I was planning to do a video as well so I took my Panasonic FZ38 for a change as I thought it's proper image stabalisation would help out on the bumpy roads, but nope. I really need to invest in a proper mount, but I'd rather have a smaller camera to start with. Crap viewing angle (can't see the road), crap idea for mounting a camera (under the headrest), crappy slow driving (no excuse).

Land Rover Series 2 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr Phone photograph of the Land Rover in the forest yesterday.

Risked my life going out in the 306 today to get some diesel. Get to the petrol station and all the diesel pumps are closed off because they haven't had a delivery. So now I've wasted even more diesel doing that. Then I decided I might as well go for a spin around the forest and ended up near enough getting to my mums house, turned around at a roundabout as that looked safest, then it clicked there is a petrol station there I could've gone to. To late now. Red-light challenge it is this week then. In better news the 306 made it back up the snow covered hill with no problems. She still does me proud despite her directional tyres.

I really regret formatting my hard drives now. I thought I'd backed up all of my saved games, but it turns out they've still managed to go missing. So I'm back to playing this and trying to get enough money to buy my own truck again. I miss my 750HP Volvo. This is probably the third game now where my saved games have just disappeared. At least I could register my key with Steam this time.

I chose not to put it in the "Your Driving Videos" thread because I wasn't driving. If I manage to venture out in the 306 tomorrow I might get a better quality video in that which I can then put in the other thread :p

Double post, but it has been a day since I last posted a video. Can't help it if no-one posts in-between :p Out 'n' aboot in my step-dad's Series 2 Land Rover today, crappy phone quality despite it supposedly being HD: Today we discovered by mum doesn't like going side-ways in the snow :p

It's a diesel so you'll probably still need to change gear at least once more than you would in a petrol equivalent. Most of the power will be between 2000RPM and 4000RPM, with the revs either side of that you're wasting your time/acceleration. I'd imagine it's probably quite/very good at accelerating away from the likes of 40MPH though which is all that matters.

I'm looking to get some tailored rubber floor mats for the 306. I bought some universal fabric ones from a supermarket soon after I got the car just so I didn't have to have pink floor mats any longer, but the fabric is starting to wear through where the heel of my shoes rest on the driver's side, and they seem to cling on to every spec of dirt possible which I hate. So I'm hoping to get some rubber mats to either replace them or just put over the top depending on how they fit. Also looking at new head units with Bluetooth built in, USB and Auxiliary input, maybe DAB+ as well. I'm not looking for subs/amps/upgraded speakers though, hate that stuff. I also need to get a couple of new tyres, but hopefully the current ones will last until I next have a few days off work so I can be in for the delivery. The local garages all seem to only sell ditch-finders or massively over-price decent brands so I'll just buy them from the internet like last time. Oh, and I need to buy some drop-links and top mounts for the front at some point and hopefully that will sort out the knocking noise I've currently got. By the time I've done all of that the weather might've cleared up enough for me to be able to do a proper detail on her ready for the Spring/Summer.

Somehow it turned out to be the most boring day off work ever. Probably because I woke up at 6AM as per normal to get ready in case it hadn't snowed so I didn't even get a lay-in like I normally would on a day off. Still better being at work I suppose. My dad managed to get back up our road in the Megane Scenic on budget Winter tyres without much drama, but apart from him and a Nissan Navara nothing has gone up or down the hill all day. The 306 remains tucked away in the garage until further notice :p

I wanna go out for a drive, but I know I won't get the car back home if I do :p

It snowed, but it's not the "Snowmageddon" that it was hyped up to be: IMG_1118 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr Still snowing a bit now, but I think that's mostly it for another year :p

So this has been doing the rounds over the last week:

Snowing here, enough for a day off work. My step-dad has gone to work in his Land Rover Series 2, but he said he went most of the way along my route in low-range 4 wheel drive as the roads haven't been treated. My sister said her boyfriend had to abandon his car on the road I use as well, so I might as well stay put :p

Yeah, I've seen that one already, if it's had all the work done that has been claimed then it could be a good buy. I've only ever seen Estoril Blue on the 3-Series Clubsport unfortunately, as I agree it's a nice colour. Currently liking this even though the interior is not the colour I was looking for. I just find that the black with silver trim looks too clinical and cold, but I can easily live with it.

I personally really like the look of Le Mans or Mystic blue with a beige leather interior and one of the darker woods for the door/dash trim. The only one I've found with almost this combination is a lesser '02 5-speed 184BHP example, but it has the dark carbon/cube trim instead of wood. I found another one in blue yesterday, but it's got black leather with a lighter carbon/cube trim, but it's the full-fat 6-speed 204BHP model. I understand the trims are easy enough to swap, but I'd rather not do it if it's possible. I'm the only one who seems to like the beige/wood combination out of my entire family, but we're all agreed on blue though :p I'm aware of all the problems that I may face with a 330D, but I'm really liking the look of the facelift Sport models at the moment. I'm eliminating one possible problem by looking for a manual over the more common automatics which I keep reading like to lunch themselves. Obviously there's the swirl-flaps as well. I suspect if I get one I'll look back and ask myself how a French car was more reliable than a BMW after a few months, but I don't care as I don't spend my earnings on much else so I might as well get a car I really want (within reason) regardless.

I won't be buying a brand new car anyway to be honest. Don't have the funds to buy a brand new car outright and I'd get fed up with monthly payments through finance as well so it's completely out of the question for me. My mum said she was going as she's looking to upgrade shortly so I went a long and had a test drive as well despite knowing I wouldn't be buying one, but it's all in good fun :p I've still got my mind set on getting BMW 330D, but my problem is that I've decided I want a particular exterior/interior colour combination which seems to be as difficult as finding hen's teeth at the moment as everyone must've liked re-sale black/grey/silver back in 2003/4 :(

:p Ended up having a spin in a 2.0TDI 150BHP model. Nice car, like the interior, still not sold on the exterior. Goes well enough, had to pull out of a short slip-road on to a dual carriageway so that was a good excuse to give it some beans up to 70/80MPH. Felt effortless compared to the 306, but the 306 only has 90BHP. Where it doesn't win for me though is handling and steering/pedal feel. I just feel too detached from everything. I had the same problem with the Polo courtesy car my mum had and the Mk6 Golf, no doubt it's the same for most newish cars these days, but I don't like it. It just feels like everything is floating, rather than the car actually being connected to the road. I can feel what type of road surface I'm on in the 306 and I know what the wheels are doing. The 306 just feels like a much better driver's car despite it being a 20+ year old design with decrepit front suspension. They had a TSI GT there as well, but I was more interested in the diesels as per normal :p